Critique the electoral process in the U.S. and suggest improvements. [Dates earlier than 2012 are spurious. I predated posts to arrange them in 'book order', but the result was unsatisfactory. Ignore the dates, focus on the content.]

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Purpose

Our goal is to create a representative democracy which allows the entire electorate to participate in the election process, to the extent of their desire and ability. We want to eliminate all agencies and barriers which advance or retard an individual's pursuit of public office. We want to design a method that allows people to decide, for themselves, who are the best among them to act as their representatives in government.

Those who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America believed political parties to be self-serving groups that sowed dissent to advance their own interest. We've learned, from events in our own country and in others, the accuracy of that assessment. We've seen extreme cases of partisanship, like Communism and National Socialism, destroy their own nations in paroxysms of self-righteousness.

The danger in Communism and National Socialism was not that they attracted partisan support; it was that the partisans gained control of government. In general, partisanship is healthy when it helps us give voice to our views. It is destructive when it achieves power. All ideologies, whether of the right or the left, differ from Communism and National Socialism only in the extent to which their partisans are able to impose their biases on the public.

Even so, partisanship is a vital part of society. It is natural for humans to seek out and align themselves with others who share their views. Partisanship gives breadth, depth and volume to an individual's voice. In and of itself, partisanship is not only inevitable, it is healthy ... provided it is always a voice and never a power. The danger is not in partisanship, it is in allowing partisans to control government.

Our goal is to devise an electoral process which encourages the analysis and adoption of partisan ideas without endowing partisan groups with governmental power.

We want to change election from a ballyhooed carnival bathed in hyperbole and deceit to a sober, contemplative process.

We want to recognize that humans naturally pursue their own interest and design the election process in such a way that one's probity significantly affects their ability to achieve public office.

We want to create a political infrastructure where David Geffen's assertion that, "Everybody in politics lies ...", is no longer a valid political yardstick in our country.